macrumors.com — Luke from iFixit.com was kind enough to test out a new NVIDIA-based MacBook Pro with 8GB of RAM (two 4GB chips) to see if the earlier reports were true. NVIDIA representatives had stated that the new chipsets used in the MacBook and MacBook Pro could support up to 8GB of RAM.
Oct 24, 2008 View in Crawl 4
jwdavOct 26, 2008
My understanding is that the point of DDR 3 was achieving the combination of bus speed/chip density that offset the latency you get when trying to build 4GB DDR2 SO DIMM's.Can you find a 4GB DDR2 Standard SO DIMM device that runs at 1066MHz - and if not, which part of the spec changes and what is the effect?
frost9999Oct 26, 2008
I could do with more RAM. I run loads of apps concurrently and that tends to eat RAM.
Closed AccountOct 26, 2008
Mac users are more likely to be intensive media work like 3d animation, 64 track audio, editing video and working with programs like After Effects and Photoshop on their MacBook Pros than an average notebook user of a 600 dollar Dell for whom a MBP is overkill. All of my above mentioned programs very much benefit from 8+ gigs of ram. Thus I maintain your third sentence is a flamebait.
Closed AccountOct 26, 2008
Not me I like macs for graphic design but 8 gig limit on the Pro and dropping firewire on the MB both suck.
alexkorovaOct 27, 2008
I don't really understand what the ruckus is all about, Apple has never claimed it supports more than 4 gigs.
riverbelowOct 29, 2008
@ everyone in this thread1. Mr. Steve is trying to bring in this high-end modeling programs, but its not really practically to render these things on a laptop. I have friends who do heavy video editing, they're an advertising company, and they do some stuff on their laptops and use them for showing [potential] customers what exactly they can do, but they're not seen as these raw processing powerhorses and they just don't have that ability. Complaining about not having 8 gigs in a ram in a computer that can't even support a quad core chip is like complaining about your tires when your care is in equal condition.2. I'm a heavy user of VMWare but I prefer Bootcamp due to the hardware acceleration. Unless you're running some of these higher-end apps like Mr Steve mentioned, you don't need 8 gigs of ram for running Photoshop or something. If you're doing that kind of heavy duty work, use Bootcamp. I see these incredibly high-end programs and I almost gape at them, but they have computers for them, they're called Mac Pros or PCs configured very highly. Laptops aren't the ideal place to render HD video or something like that and never will be, they will always be behind desktops in technology and pretending like you need to render 30000000x9999999999 models "on the go" doesn't really help anyone.Though if the chipset has the capability, there's no real reason not to. I guess it has similar justifications to them removing the firewire port from the Macbooks.
honestpenOct 31, 2008
I never said they should be denied the right ... I'm simply saying Apple can afford, and it would be in their best interest, to lower their "buy in."They'd make even MORE MONEY that way.Go psystar.
greenmyappleJan 16, 2009
Something that is interesting is that the new 17" MacBook Pro advertised 8 gigs of ram can be supported. I think this is because Snow Leopard will be released when the new models start to ship or they will have released an update. But on the other hand it might be something Apple is doing to piss us off. Thank You
falkenm3Jan 22, 2009
Vista seems to be the only OS that actually requires 8GB of RAM in order to run anything without crashing. You're talking about the fanboy's, well here is a fact for you. Vista uses approx. 300 MB shy of 1 GB just maintaining itself. Add in a couple programs and what do you get...BSOD. When I run leopard, I can open every single application on my computer before I get close to the usage of vista (on 2 GB of RAM). So when we fanboys say that 8 GB of RAM is too much were not just tooting our own horn, we actually don't need that much RAM. Even on Vista, unless you work for the FBI cyber crime unit running 50 different virtual machines, you don't need that much RAM. P.S. in the FBI scenerio I realize that you would need alot more than just 8 GB to do what I said.
Closed AccountDec 7, 2009
I had this problem with my macbook, where leopard only recognized 3 gigs. SL recognizes the full 4 though.Just wait for an update.